Gifts of Atheros
This page will outline particular uncommon racial abilities of the Cahalith, the most skilled of En'thromii shamans. Not all shamans will have all of these abilities and those whom possess them may vary greatly in skill and ability. Also know as Gifts of the Elders and most commonly known as Gifts of the Cahalith. These gifts were most prominent during the war of souls and have appeared less frequently since. They are all fueled by song, and function much differently then known magic. The gifts in truth are a few of the god's granting access to divine powers in a limited fashion and with one exception, Tala, seem to only appear in Pact Born En'thromii. As the Pact Born did not have a direct divine birthright to assist in protecting the Umbra's, the gods gave them some access to their own power directly to make of for the lack of a divine spark needed to combat some of the nastier entities which try and cross the veil at times. The gifts are based in song and not symbols and words, so an En'thromii even in wolf form can use the gifts. The gods granting the limited access to their powers, always know immediately when a person is wielding them. In a way it is closer to wild magic, then anything else. The gifts do not always function, nor function as intended. If a god doesn't want something to occur, or if they think it's poor use of the gift, it simply will not work. Overall the gifts are bardic in function and divine in nature. As a general rule these abilities are gifted at birth.....not learned. There are rare occurrences where those who have not followed the path of the shaman possess one of these gifts. Up until the birth of Zandeln d'Venoch, the gifts have not shown up in En'thromii for 3 centuries prior. They are that rare now. A logical assumption can be made as the reassurance of one the gifts occurred simultaneously with Marrok's attempts to ascent to god-hood, means that they will resurface when they might be needed. Now that there is one living En'thromii with a gift, he may at times offer the following insight into the gifts when asked. "You have to remember, that not much was ever written about them and it was always assumed that they came from Nihaluu. Stone Singing however, my gift, I know for a fact comes not from Nihaluu but from her sister, Unarath. It's her power I'm wielding when my song touches the stone. That has always led me to believing that the other two known gifts are also linked to our Elder gods. Calling the tears would likely come from Nihaluu, and Moon Song from Lykaois. The real question is, is there a fourth gift from Pfyros that knowledge of has been lost to us through the passage of time? A fifth gift from the Mother of All herself?" Expressions of the gifts are provided as a guide of how they might show up, with the Ultimate expression being how the god providing that gift would use their power to it's fullest extent. Stone Singing Expressions of Stone Singing *Common *#Stone Shaping (figurines, tools, weapons, arrow heads, etc) *#Speaking to Stone or Unarath's works (listening to the planet, scentless tracking) *Uncommon *#Crystal Growing *#Stone Shaping (makeshift shelters, Lupinar making, small fortifications, etc) *#Making stone Anchors for spirits or souls *#Making stones with a specific purpose, such as a stone that always points to home for someone. *Rare *#Mineral Singing (making rocks from earth, extracting metals from ore's, etc) *#Stone Shaping (building's, towns, cities, island making, etc) *#Umbra portals without a Lupinar *Ultimate *#New Planet Formation Taken from the pages of Zandeln's private writings. When I first came into my gift of Stone Singing, it was a shock. I was always fond of song's and when the rocks and the very earth started harmonizing with me when I sang, I thought I had gone mad. I was lucky that the older En'thromii recognized what was happening, though even they did not know much about it, other then the last Stone Singer had been lost over two hundred years before. It's turned out to be both a wondrous gift and a bit of a curse. Wondrous in that I found I could shape stone into most anything, never again would I have to worry about being without shelter for example. A curse in that as the gift grew I found I could no longer simply sing or even hum just for the pleasure of song, for the stone would likely respond even then. Here is what I have been able to discover about it myself, or though piecing together ancient writings and stories. Stone Singing is also a gift that the Ilaedrain was had as well. It seems that sometime after the Sundering this trait began to slowly fade from their lines. If that fading was from the changes in that nature of magic, or from bloodlines, I can't really say. I suspect the first more then the second, but it could also have been a combination of both. The gift of stone song seems to occur most often (when it rarely does occur) in En'thromii of Pact Born ancestry. While there are a few stories of human culture En'thromii having the gift, most of the En'thromii that showed signs of it, were from Ilaedrain lines of our race. I have fond in all my years only one story or hint that anyone of First Born or Moon Born ancestry having any of the three gifts. Tala might be a Stone Singer, but I was never able to confirm that story I found with any other another legend. It is pure conjecture, but perhaps as the Pact Born had no birthright of a divine spark like the Moon Born and First Born have, perhaps rekindling these old and forgotten magic's was part of the original Pact made between the gods when us Pact Born were first made from the other races. Literally only the gods know. Unlike the magic of the weave most mages, shamans and even clerics use, Stone Singing is not the same. Nor is it as reliable. Sometimes I might sing a song to perform some work with it, and while the stone sing back, the end result is not what was expected or intended. Sometimes even nothing happens at all, except for a brilliant and pleasing harmony with the stones. This leads me to think that the En'thromii gift, is based partly in the Wild Magics or Elder Magics that existed before the time of the sundering. To stress to anyone reading this if they are learning of our Stone Singing gift, in my first home of The South Woods when it was sick and near passing, I attempted to use it to anchor the land with a new Lupinar. It went horribly wrong, and instead the land erupted and was covered in lava, just before it finally passed into the Veil. That was happening anyway, but my ill use of Stone Singing there hastened it's end. Lupinar's are another part of the gift, which the Ilaedrain evidently did not have. I learned the primary reason for our gift, is in the making and anchoring the way through the veil to these Lupinar's. In truth even a small piece of stone can become a Lupinar for a Stone Singer. However a singer can never use their own Lupinar's, or they will suffer the same fate as me. Death. I should know as this is how I died. The only reason I can write down about my knowledge, is luck allowed me to find a way back into the mortal realms, if temporary at best. Do not ever use your own Lupinar's. I found some records where the singing up of a Lupinar was a Stone Singers last and final act. However I was able to sing three into being. Either I am extraordinarily gifted, which I doubt, or there is another reason for that. All of these Lupinar's had a guardian spirit attached to them after they were made. My only guess here, is that the Stone Singer in those cases became the Lupinar's guardian. So be warned, it is possible that building a Lupinar as a stone singer, could also be your final moment in life. I have tried hard to determine the limits of our gift, but far as I can tell there are none. There are limitations however. For a song to even have a chance to work, it must be in harmony with the stone's own songs, or with Unarath herself. Mato the great bear even warned me of this early one, in that what he knew of it, is that a singer needed to be like the stone and the earth, and not like the river that cut through the two. If the terms of a song, if you are off key, singing to the wrong beat, or try and go against the nature of things, it will either not work, or go horribly wrong. When I sing up little figurines for my friends, I always look for a small rock or stone, that seems to have a figure I would like to see made, lurking somewhere inside the rock. If this does not come to make sense, you could ask a stone or wood carver or artist about it. I did once, and that was the best explanation I was given. Besides not singing off key, another limitation is the singer's own voice and ability to compose songs. If you try to sing already composed children songs, it is probably not going to do anything, unless Unarath thinks you are yearning for a child of you own, in which case you may have a significant surprise in store for you in about 9 months. The last limitation is that Unarath will not allow anything to happen that she does not really want too happen, nor will she respond to a song she simply did not like. So while the power might be technically only limited by Unarath's power herself, if you try to sing a song that will crack the world in half, you are going to have to make sure that Unarath really wants that to happen, or sing such a magnificent song she'd allow it. In a way we have been given access to our Elder god's power directly, so there are not any real limits to what we might accomplish. The limitations are built in to how we have to invoke that power through our songs. I've explained it to few friends with following. “Yes, I might be able to crack our world in half. When I try and imagine the song I would have to compose to accomplish that feat, I stop thinking about it rather quickly and I never want to face that headache of a chore.” To En'thromii or wolves it make a beautiful kind of sense. No sane wolf would compose such a song, and the mad wolves would never have the patience to compose it. So while Mages and Shaman are limited by how much of the weave they can 'carry' with them, us singers are limited by our ability to invoke an action through pleasing music. From experience, that is a lot harder to accomplish then it sounds. Ask any bard about writing music that appeals to a specific crowd. Be prepared to be attending that lecture for the next year of you life, or even longer. Calling the tears Expressions of Calling the Tears *Common *#Silver Calling (extract Silver poison from wounded wolves) *#Nihaluu's Sorrow (Shard of Silver or a Splash of Nihaluu's Tears) *#Tear's of Pain (Fully heal an damaged and/or exhausted wolf kin) *Uncommon *#Unknown *Rare *#Unknown *Unique *#Gather the Tears (South Woods history, gather all of Nihaluu's tears to a safe location) *Ultimate *#Producing new First Born (Shynee was one transformed this way) *#Asteroids, Comets, Moons and gas clouds formation. Moon song Expressions of Moon song *Common *#Gather the Pack (Calls all En'thromii and nearby wild wolves) *#New Moon song (Hides one En'thromii or wolf from even true seeing and scrying, ability is much stronger for nameless tribe) *#Full Moon song (eases the shifting of any En'thromii struggling with the change) *Uncommon *#Hidden Path (Can move to/from any Umbra, optionally bypassing the Veil) *#Guardian Wolf (Animates any/all of a stone singers, wolf figures/statues at Lupinar's) *Rare *#Wolf Born Song (Can force the first shift of any Latent wolven kind) *#Hidden Gate (Can open portals so any one may move to/from any Umbra, optionally bypassing the Veil) *Ultimate *#Making the Pact (transform most humanoid beings, except for fae/pixies, into Pact Born En'thromii) *#Closing the Veil (completely lock the Veil preventing any crossing for a time) Sun song? If this gift exists, one might assume it would deal with fire and stars, with the Ultimate expression of the gift, being the making of new stars, and kindling nuclear fusion. First song? If this gift exists, one might assume it would deal with the power of creation and life, with the Ultimate expression of the gift, being the making of new universes, and making new life forms including the making of greater or lesser gods. Category:Gifts Category:Cahalith